Danny Granger referred to the Indiana Pacers' roster situation as "up in the air." Coach Frank Vogel said they're just rolling with things. Paul George mentioned they're going with the flow.

The Pacers will likely add two more players than they had Friday when Jeff Pendergraph makes his debut and veteran Jeff Foster starts his 13th year with the organization.

There could be more changes Sunday and the day after that and the day after that.
That's how things may go for the Pacers as they try to prepare for their Dec. 26 season opener against Detroit with a roster that could change any day.

"It's very weird," Granger said. "We don't know who is going to be here. We don't know what free agents we're going to add. There can be trades. All this can happen before Christmas. It's kind of up in the air.

"Like coach Vogel told us before, we just have to go with the flow because every team is in the same situation as we are in."

Team officials quickly scattered after practice as they continue to search for a power forward and ponder other moves.

Their top option -- free agent forward Nene -- may be off the market soon because New Jersey reportedly plans to offer him a four-year deal in the $60 million-65 million range.
The Pacers like Nene, but they don't like him quite that much. They've had conversations with the agent of former Purdue standout forward Carl Landry.

The Pacers are also still interested in guard Jamal Crawford.

So their free agent moves have been limited to signing Pendergraph, who didn't play last season because of a knee injury, and Foster, who hopes to retire a Pacer.
"It's imperfect, but it's imperfect for everyone in the league," Vogel said. "And to be honest, it's imperfect less for us than it is for most teams."

Vogel said the Pacers had a fairly smooth first practice. The players are in decent shape despite having to wait more than two months for the start of training camp because of the lockout.

Vogel wants to keep a balance between getting his players into game shape and not overdoing it. They'll have one practice today before starting to alternate with two-a-days Sunday.

Vogel doesn't plan to overwhelm his players with changes to the system. He wants to keep it as simple as possible.

"We understand there's going to be imperfections, but we have a good group of guys we know like playing basketball," he said. "They like the competition. They like being around each other, so we're going to have fun."

The Pacers have only two preseason games and two weeks of practice before they face the Pistons. They hope team continuity will offset their short window to prepare for the season.

Nine players from last season's roster practiced Friday. They could have the same starting lineup opening night that they had at the end of last season, too.

"I think that gives us an advantage in some ways," Granger said. "The five guys who started for us last year are still here. We have other guys we've added who know the system. That gives us an advantage."